Astronaut sings Bowie's 'Space Oddity' in zero gravity

By Brandon Griggs, CNN

Updated 6:54 AM ET, Tue May 14, 2013

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Life in space: Candid photos – Many space fans already know about Chris Hadfield, a Canadian Space Agency astronaut who just spent five months aboard the International Space Station. He's a bit of a social media star, with hundreds of thousands of fans on Facebook and Twitter. But his rendition of David Bowie's "Space Oddity" is propelling him to further heights. The viral video is the latest of his many popular posts. Click through the gallery to see some other things Hadfield has shared via Twitter with the people of Earth, where he was scheduled to return the night of Monday, May 13.

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Life in space: Candid photos – "Here's looking at you," tweeted Hadfield about this spacewalk photo opportunity with Tom Marshburn, a flight engineer. "Chris and Tom take a minute with visors to look up-sun at my camera in the window," reads the May 11 post.

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Life in space: Candid photos – "Good to know that after 5 months, my Sokhol pressure suit still fits," Hadfield wrote on May 7. This "high fashion" photo posted on Twitter shows him modeling his outfit for the trip home in the Russian Soyuz space capsule.

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Life in space: Candid photos – For many fans of the "Star Wars" franchise, May 4 has a special meaning. "There is no try -- only do," Hadfield wrote in a tweet. "May the 4th be with you." He was of course referring to the famous line, "May the force be with you" and is shown here playing with a miniature version of Earth.

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Life in space: Candid photos – This floating space onion was photographed on May 2. Hadley wrote that it "came up on the Progress resupply spaceship. We sliced it up and had it with everything -- nice flavor!"

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Life in space: Candid photos – Hadley got a space haircut as depicted in this April 7 photo. "Dr. Tom doing a nice, surgical job of trimming, working around the science experiment (temperature) sensor," Hadfield tweeted.

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Life in space: Candid photos – One can also get some stunning views of space from the space station, as seen in many of Hadfield's photos. He tweeted a stunning image of Boston on May 12. "Hope your Bruins play a memorable game tonight vs. the Leafs," Hadfield said to Boston's hockey fans.

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Life in space: Candid photos – Hadfield described this formation, shown in a photo posted May 13, as "a heraldic Spring dragon of ice" off the coast of Newfoundland.

Life in space: Candid photos – A view of the Florida Peninsula at night. "Spaceship's glowing blue in the dawn," wrote Hadfield on May 12, "as we leave Florida headed across the Atlantic."

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Life in space: Candid photos – Even the sky seems a bit more proper in England, Hadfield noted: "English clouds showing how to properly queue over Hull and the Humber Estuary."

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Life in space: Candid photos – This photo was taken over a snowy Utah. "Next year, I'll get some skiing in," Hadfield quipped.

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Life in space: Candid photos – A checkerboard scene below. "Little farmers, big farmers and nature, in Turkey," Hadfield wrote on May 8.

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Life in space: Candid photos – This April 7 photo shows a river that "hiccups like a zipper on an old coat." Many Twitter users who saw the post began to speculate about which river it might be.

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Life in space: Candid photos – "Some of the things we build for ourselves are puzzlingly visible from space," wrote Hadfield, referring to manmade islands in Dubai as seen on March 20.

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Life in space: Candid photos – Hadfield often posted a concluding image at the end of a night, and this is how he finished his posts for April 18: "Tonight's Finale: Catching the moon rising takes patience, but is worth it."

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Life in space: Candid photos – At the very end of the trip, on May 13, Chris Hadfield tweeted this image: "Spaceflight finale: To some this may look like a sunset. But it's a new dawn."

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Story highlights

Viral video shows a Canadian astronaut singing David Bowie's "Space Oddity" from space

Posted Sunday, video has more than 1 million views on YouTube

Chris Hadfield recorded the guitar and vocals on the International Space Station

A video of the Canadian astronaut singing David Bowie's "Space Oddity" from the International Space Station has been zipping around the Web at light speed since it was posted Sunday. The five-minute clip features Hadfield singing a modified version of the tune and strumming an acoustic guitar while floating through a space module, more than 200 miles above the Earth.

By Monday afternoon, it had more than 1.8 million views on YouTube, 3,000 comments on Reddit and was being widely shared across social networks.

But the elegant "Space Oddity" video, reportedly months in the making, may rocket him into a higher orbit. Hadfield's earnest voice and unique perch in space brings a moving immediacy to Bowie's verses, and when he sings, "I'm floating in a most peculiar way" while actually floating, it's a powerful moment.

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Ground control to astronaut Chris

Because Hadfield's vocals and guitar were recorded on the space station (and mixed with supporting tracks by Emm Gryner, a Canadian musician who once sang backup for Bowie), some observers are calling it the first music video made in space.

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Wringing out a washcloth in zero gravity

"The floating guitar is really floating, it's not some computer animation or trickery. The Earth turning behind him in the windows is the real deal. That's us, that's our blue dot, not some stock image, or animation ...," wrote one Redditor. "The video has none of the Hollywood fakery we are used to. Its power comes from this authenticity."

Hadfield took a few liberties with the lyrics of the 1969 Bowie song, which became a hit upon its 1973 rerelease. In the original song, Ground Control loses radio contact with the astronaut, Major Tom, implying that the mission has failed. But Hadfield omits that part.

The 53-year-old Hadfield launched aboard the Russian Soyuz spacecraft in December and in March became the first Canadian to lead a spaceship as commander of the International Space Station. The video clip was a farewell of sorts: Hadfield, Soyuz Cmdr. Roman Romanenko and Flight Engineer Tom Mars landed safely in their Soyuz spacecraft Tuesday in Kazakhstan as scheduled, according to NASA.

One Reddit commenter may have spoken for many when he wrote, "You'd better freakin' make it safely or this video will be the biggest tear-jerker on the Internet."